


Support Group

by fabricdragon



Series: A Twisted Skein [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Loki Has Issues, Past Abuse, Past Drug Use, Past Self Hatred, Past Sexual Abuse, Therapy, Tony Stark Has Issues, past suicide attempts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-26 20:49:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5020006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabricdragon/pseuds/fabricdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt by Marron..<br/>Two of my Original Characters from  "Someone Had to Say it" end up talking about their  difficult clients.<br/>they just don't know that two of their clients are involved with each other.</p><p>PLEASE NOTE: this is not "canon" for my other story (at this point) and is NOT required reading.<br/>EDIT: And now it is.<br/>Canon that is, still not required reading</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prequel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Marron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marron/gifts).



Dani walked out of a long long day at the clinic. Tuesday was always the day for the support group. It was a bad day, today. People newly diagnosed and terrified that their lives were over. They weren’t, of course. Some of the best volunteers he had come in on Tuesdays; people who had been living with it for years. They helped the new kids understand that it wasn’t over.

Dani blinked back to awareness and laughed. He had walked himself over to Rosa’s without realizing it. Rosa’s had some of the best food in New York, and hardly anyone knew it was here. Well, he was here now, and he hadn’t had dinner. He pushed the door open and walked in.

“Mama Rosa!” he smiled up at the woman bustling about with a tray full of wonderful, “You shouldn’t be carrying that!”

Mama laughed, “You gonna?”

“Who, me?” Dani pouted in mock sadness, “Mama, really, I’m far too pretty! Get one of these big brutes to carry it.” He reached out to help only to have someone beat him to it.

“I’ve got it,” said a younger woman coming up and taking the tray. “You sit down, Mama.”

Dani got shooed by mama to a table in the back with a young woman seated there already, reading.

“Heavens, Mama, you tryin’ to set me up? If so there’s a lovely fellow across the room….”

Mama just smiled and told him, “You go sit with my niece. She don’t bite much.”

“Well then why I wanna sit with her, then?” he pouted after Mama, and flounced his most over the top flounce over to the table. Whatever reaction he was expecting, it wasn’t the one he got.

“Mama says you run the string of clinics, including the one that got trashed during the invasion.” Her hair was bleached blonde, but you could see the faint resemblance to Mama Rosa if you looked hard. She was thin, where mama Rosa was not, and she looked like smiling was a foreign concept, but somehow she still had Mama’s cheekbones, and a bit of her mouth.

“Two of my clinics got trashed darlin’,” Dani sighed, “Lucky I’m so cute I got a sugar daddy to foot the bills.”

She just nodded and went back into her book.

Dani wasn’t used to this. People laughed, or got mad, or acted like the chiffon was going to rub off on them, but… this was weird. He wondered if she was autistic. She might not get that he was fooling around… “I’m just teasing.” He said it as gently as he could.

She looked up and blinked at him. “I know. Oh, did you think I believed you?”

“Err…” Dani was REALLY relieved when Mama sent over a tray of food.

The strange woman blinked at the tray and then did a double take at Dani. “Sancocho? Aunt Rosa must LIKE you.”

Dani smiled, “Mama is a very nice woman, with very big hips, and if I say anything ruder than that she will swat me with her broom. Yes, I think she likes me.”

They both sat there eating. Dani trying not to think about today.

“Carol.”

Dani looked up over his food, “Hmm?”

“We got off on the wrong foot. This is off duty time for me and... honestly I’m coming down off a really hard day. It’s Carol.”

Dani understood hard days. “Well, sugar, you already know I’m Dani… but it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He smiled. “You’ve had your nose in that book the whole time, but it’s all covered with paper. If it’s porn though, it sure is hard and thick…” he tried to make her laugh at the joke with his very best eyebrow work.

She sighed at him. Very quietly she said, “I work in the field, Dani. The very last thing I want to do after a rough day is talk sex.”

Dani suddenly felt his perspective on the situation shift. Bleached hair, carefully groomed eyebrows, exquisite manicure, wearing clothes designed to completely hide in. Dominican aunt and that culture wasn’t usually great with anything non mainstream. Even if Mama adored him, she might not be so great when it was family.

“Sorry, angel, it’s a habit.” He shrugged apologetically. “I can’t NOT look like a gay man; I set off gaydar at a thousand feet, but if you play it up people usually laugh instead of getting upset.”

She nodded. “Rough day?”

“Can you tell?” He asked curiously.

“Yes. I’m very observant. The book is one of my psych textbooks, by the way. It’s a rental, so I cover it.”

He tilted his head, “Practicals?” He asked, wondering about her rough day.

She nodded, “Trying to do my in hospital time, and my work, and a few exams.”

Dani whistled. “That’s pretty rough.” He handed her a card. “We always need counseling staff, and medical staff, and we do internships…”

“When I get to that point, I’ll consider it.”

They both sat quietly and finished their Sancocho.

Dani looked up in amazement when dessert was delivered. “Majarete? Oh darling I am SO sitting with you again.”

Carol smiled for the first time.

As they were almost finished with their dessert, Carol said, “I have a suggestion.”

Dani bit back a whole list of filthy things to say. “Shoot.”

“I have some client issues, and I can’t talk to anyone about them for privacy reasons. If I’m right, you have some things you could use an ear for. Neither of us works in each other’s field, and we could anonymize the details….”

Dani almost felt a weight lift off of him. “Oh baby, you’re GOOD…” Then he frowned, “What made you decide that?”

She nodded at the remains of the dessert. “Mama likes you enough to serve Sancocho, and you appreciate Majarete.” She raised an eyebrow, “and for all that, you don’t seem likely to run screaming if I talk about needle play.”

Dani laughed. “Not hardly.”

They both got out their phones and went over schedules. They finally settled on Sunday afternoon.

“There is this coffee shop I go to, it’s called Moggles...” Carol suggested. She wrote down the address.

Dani bowed over her hand and made kissing noises. She just snorted at him.

Dani paid his bill and walked out, feeling better than he had in weeks.

 

 

 

 


	2. Walking Wounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Relative to "Someone had to say it" this takes place prior to Chapter 39.  
> So it takes place on Sunday: after Carol has dealt with Loki, but BEFORE Dani has dealt with Tony.
> 
> THIS is a HEAVY conversation. note the updated tags.

Dani and Carol turned Sundays in the back corner booth at the coffee shop into a regular thing: oh, sometimes it was evening; sometimes morning; and sometimes it wasn’t Sunday; but it was a thing. Having someone to talk to was such a relief, and now that they weren’t meeting near Carol’s relatives Dani could be more his usual self.

Carol got to let her hair down, figuratively, as well. She had a wicked sense of humor and was usually sitting in the booth, eyes crinkled, looking over some peculiar drink the barista had made for her, just waiting to tell Dani all about how she had to sneak into a hotel to untie someone, or how one of the club’s clients managed to get themselves glued to the equipment. Nothing fazed her, nothing at all, which is why it was a shock when he walked in to their corner booth and Carol looked majorly stressed.

“Oh no, talk to me BabyBuns, did someone mess up your manicure? Tell me who and I will END them.” Dani’s mouth ran on autopilot while he looked Carol over.

She had circles under her eyes the concealer wasn’t concealing. She was wearing a super oversized sweatshirt and looked even smaller. Her nails were pristine except… _Oh My God, she’d CHEWED one of them._ Dani was shocked; this was serious.

Dani took her hand, “Carol, sweetie, you told me you get these manicures so you won’t chew your nails... That’s gotta be like fifty bucks worth of damage to the fenders and trim… what happened?”

“Dani, I have a REALLY tough client. I need to talk, but…“ Her eyes tracked around the crowd in the coffee shop.

“Walk with me, Sugar Bear, we’ll tip the bartender and find someplace   less classy.”

She didn’t even ask where they were going. Dani ran over possible scenarios in his head. He really couldn’t figure out anything that wouldn’t have Carol more mad than spooked. At least the walk seemed to be helping. He knew how that was, you got cooped up with nothing to do but think and fell apart. _Been there, done that, had the commemorative hospital bracelet._

Dani let them into the clinic and gave Juju, who was working in the front, a ‘later’ wave, as he steered Carol to one of the smaller counseling rooms.

“I thought this clinic wasn’t open yet?”

“It isn’t, Snuggums, the city insists some of the work isn’t up to snuff so we can’t open as a clinic. No one said we couldn’t do paperwork though, or use the offices.”

Dani busied himself making coffee and getting out a few cookies.

“Nice room, friendly, not too ‘psych office’,” Carol smiled.

Dani brought the coffee over and put down a plate of cookies. “So? Dish, Sugar, what could be so awful that it’s worth ruining a manicure for?”

Carol grinned, “It’s worse than THAT, Dani, I snapped a heel on my black pumps.”

Dani forced his eyes wide. “NO! Not the pumps, oh Mammy tell me it ain’t so!”

Carol laughed and relaxed into the chair. “Have I mentioned lately how much I adore you, Dani?”

“Why no, not in the last fifteen. “ He arched his eyebrow. “A boy could forget you cared…” Then he couldn’t keep a straight face anymore and started snickering.

They ate cookies and drank coffee for a bit, occasionally snickering at each other.

“This is terrible coffee,” Carol said after a while.

“Mmm hmm. Want another?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Seriously, Angel, you had Baby worried here. Bad client you said?”

“Dani, no joke, this goes way beyond our usual client privacy talk. I’m going to scrub this one as hard as I can, but I have to talk to someone and it’s… complicated.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die… or dye… what do you think about pink?” Dani pursed his lips. After seeing her look he nodded and said seriously, “Sure, hon, I know those kinds of clients.”

“No… no, I don’t think you do.  As far as sex work goes… ever dealt with a Sadist?”

Dani tilted his head at her. “I take it you don’t mean the typical ex?”

“No… look, Dani, I went into the business because if I don’t get an outlet- an acceptable, consensual outlet- then someone is going to get damaged.”

Dani looked solemnly at Carol. “You aren’t the kind of sadist I usually deal with.”

“No.” Carol stared down at her coffee. “It doesn’t mean we don’t like people, or even love people, it just means we have a… outlet need … about control, or pain, or adrenaline or however you want to describe it. Some of us can make do hurting ourselves as an outlet; some of us go into aggressive sports; or do high risk, physical activities. It doesn’t mean we’re sociopaths.”

Dani looked thoughtful. This was not entirely new, but it was sure a different way of thinking about it.

“So, all sociopaths are sadists, but not all sadists are sociopaths?” Dani said hesitantly.

“No. Close, but no.” Carol blew her breath out in a long sigh. “Most sociopaths, REAL sociopaths, are not sadists. They don’t actually think of other people as important.   They may choose to be sadistic, but to a real sociopath they can’t think about other people enough to focus on them. That’s not to say a sociopath doesn’t behave sadistically, they certainly can and do, but they just don’t have enough connection to other people be a real sadist.

“Narcissists are sadistic. It’s actually the main way I can tell the difference between a sociopath and a narcissist. Once you move past the ‘center of the universe’ stage with a narcissist and you are no longer fulfilling their needs, they want to destroy you. However, even that isn’t the same: it’s different than the type of sadist I am talking about. It can be hard to tell though, until you get into their head a bit better.

“I like hearing people scream. I like hearing people beg. I like knowing how people work and that I really could take them apart. The thing that makes me able to live in society is that I also like to take care of people and make them feel better.” She looked off for a while. “Both sides of that are about control, really, at the core.”

Dani was stunned, but he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. “That’s a lot to process, there; can you give me a minute?”

Carol nodded.

Dani suddenly thought about his friend Tony. How often he’d been hurt, how often he’d hurt other people by being so damned self-centered. Tony wasn’t a narcissist: he never deliberately hurt anyone but himself, but it sounded similar, somehow.

“Carol... This is gonna sound weird…” Dani saw Carol looking worried. _Oh, she figured I’d be mad at her? Probably_. “No, no mama, it’s not... exactly... about you. See I have this friend, for reals not me, a friend. He’s got no sense.” Dani noticed the perplexed look on Carol’s face. “It’s just that something about this sounds similar. The man is *always* getting hurt, or hurting people by… accident I guess. He sure can rip you a new one verbally though. For some reason I was thinking about him .”

Carol looked thoughtful. “Brat,” she said firmly.

“Well, he’s a bit old to be a brat, darlin’.” Dani smiled because he’d called Tony a brat in his own mind more than once.

She shook her head. “Bratty sub. Probably attention starved and never got enough praise as a kid. He wants to be punished, he desperately wants attention, and he NEEDS limits, but he keeps pushing people.”

Dani’s mouth just dropped open, and for once he wasn’t making a sex joke out of his expression. “Wow.” Dani had to sit back. “You sound like you know him.”

She smiled sadly. “No, I don’t know him, but there are a lot of people like that out there.  They tend to drive everyone away. If they run into a GOOD top, they get what they need. If they run into a bad one? They get hurt.” She looked down at her coffee. “I have two like that in my client list. They’re exhausting to deal with. It’s like a black hole for attention and praise, they’re so damaged.”

Dani looked thoughtful. “So that’s your bad client?”

“Oh, no, I wish it was that simple.” She stole another cookie off the tray. “My bad client is a sadist, like me.”

Dani frowned, “But you don’t like being the bottom, Sugar, you don’t HAVE to take a client do you?”

She shook her head. “Not that kind of client.” She held up her hand and Dani waited while she collected her thoughts.

After a long pause she went on: “He’s… into some of the really potentially dangerous stuff, but he doesn’t have a lot of clues about safety. Normally, I would just drop this guy and pass word on to the community to keep an eye open for him at events, but…”

Dani made encouraging noises.

“He… He just moved into the area. He has a local guy he’s interested in… and it’s GOING to happen no matter what I do. At first, I figured the only thing I could do is keep my client from killing anyone accidentally… but.” She looked up at Dani. “It was like staring into a really weird mirror. It was like looking at the first time I actually cared about someone and realized I still wanted to stick pins in them and hear them cry, but I loved them.”

Dani blinked. This was way more than he ever expected. Frankly he didn’t want to hear it, but… _Oh_.

“Sort of like the first time I realized what I wanted from another guy?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, it’s like that. ‘Am I sick?’, ‘Should I turn myself in?’, ‘Should I kill myself?’ When you realize that your interests are going to send people screaming for the hills. It’s bad.“ Carol smiled sadly. “At least the gay guy isn’t only the serial killer these days.”

Danni leaned over and clinked coffee cups with her. “To progress.”

She smiled, “To progress.”

“Ok blondie, all coffee and no food makes Dani a whiney bitch.” He handed her a few take out menus. “Let’s get some food in here and finish this discussion.”

\---

They talked mostly about city inspections, paperwork, and how much of a kickback the city wanted to re-open the clinic, until they finished eating.

Dani collected the remains and bagged it up to go out to the dumpster. “I suppose it must be really odd for you to see someone that looks like you ‘back when’. God knows I see it often enough here at the clinic. I guess I’m used to it.”

Carol looked thoughtful. “I guess you must be. Used to it, I mean.” She looked thoughtful. “Most of the sadists-like me sadists, I mean- that I see are either really experienced, or they take it all out on themselves because they’re afraid to touch anyone else. If they’re lucky I find them and get them help before they kill themselves.”

Dani looked at her thoughtfully. “Did you get close?”

Carol looked at him thoughtfully. “You know you sound totally different when your voice gets serious.” She shrugged slightly and pushed the sleeves back up on her sweatshirt.

He tried not to gasp or act shocked. God knows he’d seen a lot at the clinics- and before to be honest- but her arms were a mess.

He tried to keep his tone light. “That must be hard to work around.”

“Not really. After all, I kept it hidden for years until I was hospitalized with…” she looked thoughtful, “probably my third suicide attempt. It was the one that almost worked. Luckily, after I ditched that therapist, I ran into the world’s worst boyfriend and drug pusher.”

“LUCKILY?” Dani stared at her. “Sweet Cheeks you and I have some different opinions of ‘lucky’.”

She smiled sharply. “Yes, well let me just say you should never try to hurt a sadist: we’re much better at it, and we usually have more experience. In any event, he introduced me to the BDSM community. HE may have been one of the scene’s numerous bad examples… but he’s also how I found out that there were other people like me. There was a place where I fit in, at least a little, and there were rules.“ She tilted her head at Dani. “Rules I could live with, as opposed to rules that said I was evil incarnate.”

“Ah, like rules for guys having safe sex with guys, not just rules that say ‘don’t even think about it’?”

She nodded.

“And this client?”

“Honestly? Just being able to talk to you about… me... and how he tripped over some of my own issues? It helps. I think I have a better grip on why I did what I did.”

“Please don’t tell me you killed him and buried him; well, unless you know where to bury a building inspector, Sugar, because this guy is pushing me.” Dani sighed. “I’m gonna call one of my friends who has some pull. Maybe I can get this fixed… sorry Sweetie, go on.”

She looked thoughtful. “Let me know if your friend can’t fix it. I have friends in some weird places. Anyway, I wondered why… I mean the guy terrified me, and I SHOULD have thought he was nothing but a stone cold sociopath, but I think I just figured out why I don’t feel so bad about helping him.”

Dani pulled his usual act back on: “Tell Baby all about it, Mama Bear,” and batted his eyes. It got the reaction he wanted: she laughed. _I’d love to introduce her to Tony. Didn’t he break up with Pepper? She’d be able to keep him safe, anyway. Safer, at least._

She finished laughing and tried to get all the coffee off her sweat shirt. “You waited until I was drinking,” she said accusingly at him.

He just smirked.

“I think he finally found out he could care about someone, really care, and not just care about the sex. That’s why he wanted to know how to do the kinds of things he already did, but more carefully.” She smiled a bit. “I think I recognized that at some level. In my case, the first time I found someone and started caring I ran away, because I didn’t want to hurt them. In his case he had a friend who introduced him to me.”

Dani nodded. “So, not entirely off what you do anyway. This guy was just scarier?”

“Yes, he came off like a real problem at first. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s kind of like what I do sometimes: hide behind an image. In his case the image is ‘scary bad ass’ but he’s actually hurt and lonely. I really hope I helped enough for this to work out.”

She leaned over and hugged him. Dani almost fell off his chair, because Carol didn’t hug.

She smiled at him, “Tell you what. Next time? You can tell me all about your bratty friend and how he saved your life.”

The world spun a bit crazily around Dani. “Did I tell you he saved my life?”

“Not in words, no, but it’s in your eyes.”

“Anyone ever tell you it’s rude to read a boy’s eyes before he puts on his mascara?”

“I have to go. Homework to finish and a big day at school tomorrow, and if I haven’t heard about my client doing anything too horrible by now, he probably didn’t.”

They walked out back to the dumpster and Dani pitched the bag in; he heard rats. He walked her to the front of the building and got her a cab. They spent a few minutes talking because he knew the driver: Raoul drove a lot of guys to this clinic before it closed for repairs.

Dani wondered for a while about her how bad her life must have been to make that much of a mess of her arms; he rolled back his sleeves and looked at the ancient track marks.

_Walking wounded, the lot of us, just trying to help get some other people off the battle field in one piece._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO NOT use Carol's definitions of narcissist, sociopath,, or sadist on any actual class tests. This is just how she is describing stuff to Dani.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani needs to talk to Carol. 
> 
> Takes place after Dani talked to Tony on Tuesday... but before Carol got called in in chapter 55 of "Someone Had to Say It."

Dani hated to impose on Carol so soon after their last conversation, but if he didn’t get *someone* to rant at he was going to explode. He would have liked to have seen her on Wednesday but she already had the day booked until late, and he had early morning meetings with the building inspection people on Thursday to discuss getting the clinic back up, so the earliest they could meet was Thursday evening. It was going to have to be back at the office, because he didn’t want the poor coffee shop patrons having to bleach out their ears. Dani resumed pacing around his office.

*

After Juju showed Carol in, Dani told him to go home. Juju, being the dutiful sort, started going on about the buddy system rule when leaving the office to avoid problems. Dani had to admit he was right, but…

“Don’t I count?” Carol smiled politely at Juju.

“Miss, we get very few problems, but every now and then someone shows up whose looking to gay bash… with a bat.” Juju looked her up and down from his own imposing height. “And you don’t look much scarier than Dani.”

She smiled, showing teeth, “Oh, I’m much scarier than dear, sweet Dani, but I get your point. Don’t you have a buddy to go home with?”

Dani blinked. _How had he not asked himself this question?_ “Juju? You always just walked me to my cab, or my bus, or what have you, and I never once thought about it. Where’s YOUR buddy?”

Juju just chuckled, and reached down to pat Dani on the shoulder. “It takes a special kind of stupid to mess with me.”

Carol looked thoughtfully at Juju while Dani was trying to figure out how he had NEVER noticed this. “Could you run out and pick up the food order, then? I think Dani wants to scream and yell profanities without being heard by his coworkers.”

“Sugar, what did baby tell you about reading my mind without buying me dinner first?” Dani stared at Carol. “This Sherlock Holmes thing is kind of scary.”

Juju just rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard worse, Dani, I assure you.”

Dani held his hand over his eyes. “Just pass me the menu and let me PRETEND you think I’m too much of a lady to be as crude as I’m about to be.”

*

After what was probably only five or ten minutes of screaming, and ranting…

“…Fuckin inconsiderate… AAAAH! Stupid… Manwhore… and he finally finds a good one and he’s gonna chase them off because he’s a grade A skank who doesn’t even have the slightest consideration… the Bitch…the bitch probably thinks a dozen roses are enough to even TOUCH the amount of groveling ….”

Carol steered him back into his chair and away from the wall.

“…that assclown throws away every single good… single thing that comes his way all because of his precious Daddy issues, that shitbag should have let him be raised by wolves he’d be better off...”

Carol nodded a lot and sipped her coffee.

“… and he is gonna get his sexy ass DEAD or worse!”

Dani collapsed back into the chair across from Carol. His throat hurt, and his eyes hurt, and he probably looked like hell.

Carol cleared her throat. “I can see why you didn’t want Juju to hear you.”

“I’m sorry, I am so sorry…” Dani sniffled.

“You should be, that was terrible.”

“I just needed to get it out of my system. I’m sorry you had to hear me be that crude.”

Carol blinked at him. “No, Dani,“ Carol said patiently, “that’s not what I meant.”

There was a knock at the door and Juju came in with take out. Dani sniffled and went to the sink to try to get himself cleaned up. He thanked small favors they didn’t have a mirror in here; he must look atrocious.

“Dani, do you need me to put on my head phones?” Juju asked him sympathetically.

“You might want to, Dani is terrible,” Carol said drily.

“I said I was sorry!” sniffed Dani.

“Really?” Juju said curiously, “I never figured him for the swearing type.”

“He isn’t. He’s horrible at it. I’ve heard worse swearing from 6 year olds, seriously. It was embarrassing. He kept running out of things to say and spluttering.”

Juju laughed and said, “That sounds more like Dani.”

Dani just stared at Carol as Juju walked out.

Carol sat there drinking her coffee.

“Are you SERIOUS?” Dani shrieked.

“Mmm hmm.” Carol nodded over her coffee. “That was pathetic. A for effort I suppose, and it’s obvious you love the guy and are worried about him, and I know a lot more about him now, but… Dani, seriously, you obviously have no practice at this.” Carol opened a box of take out. “Maybe you could stick to insulting his clothing choices and his hairstyle? You’re good at that.”

“Bastard dresses like an angel, looks good in ratty t-shirts, and has great hair,” Dani muttered.

“Oh. That explains it.”

*

Dani couldn’t give the details of course, so he left it at BDSM and didn’t mention the specifics of what Tony was into. He turned ‘one of the richest men around’ into ‘well off’, as well. He made the decision to keep all the pronouns to ‘he’, just in case. Carol was scary with her Sherlock Holmes mind reading tricks, and he was trying to be discrete with Tony’s confidences. “…and he’s always running right over people’s limits. All the time. I bet that’s why his last one left, he finally pushed too far. We all had hopes; I think it was his longest relationship.”

“So was there a specific incident with this one?”

“Oh yeah, they apparently had a real… intense… weekend together, so of course my idiot decides that he doesn’t care that his new boy toy has some kind of issues -he didn’t tell me what issues, so I don’t know- but he wasn’t ready to do penetration…“

Carol nodded. “Lots of people prefer to go slower on that. It’s a different kind of intimacy for them.”

“I know. But idiot decided that boytoy was all hard and must not be serious and shoved himself onto him.”

Carol’s eyes widened. “Dani, that’s at LEAST abuse of consent, and really could be rape!”

“I KNOW!” Dani wailed, “and the damn fool wasn’t thinking about anyone but his damn self and probably can’t even understand it. He probably figures since he was playing bottom that it’s all Ok.”

“Wow.” She shook her head slowly. “That goes way beyond bratty sub and up into assault charges, if you could ever get the police to be allies.” Carol shook her head again. “This is a friend? Um….”

“I know, I know. He felt all guilty afterwards and all, but mostly thinking he’d scared him off, or hurt him physically. I haven’t met this new guy, so I don’t even begin to know if he’s ok emotionally, or not... or where he went, or if I am gonna be able to catch up with him and let him know idiot’s friends all KNOW he can be a jerk, and we’ll believe him….

“and …

“The worst part is? From what idiot said about the weekend up to then? The guy is really sweet, a caretaker ‘daddy’ type, and took good care of him, and was helping him to get off his bad habits. Just the kind of NON enabling partner he needs… and he pulled this.”

Carol was looking off into the distance.

“He’s a good guy, underneath, I know how this sounds, but he is...”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m sure. In fact that’s probably why.”

“What?”

“This new guy, he seems good for him?”

“From what I heard, yeah.”

“Your friend, you said bad habits? Like addiction? And unsafe sex?”

“Yeah.” Dani slumped. “Why?”

“He probably doesn’t realize why he did it…” Carol said. “But I was right about the bratty sub. Just you seem to have a bratty sub on steroids. He did it to scare him off.”

“I don’t get it, sweetie, he didn’t want to scare him off, he was practically going into poetry about him.”

“Yup, and the new boytoy is good for him, and probably kind, and wonderful, and everything he needs.” Carol smiled sadly. “But your friend is self-destructive from the sound of it, so since he’s convinced everyone will leave him anyway, when the guy got too close, he acts up to chase him off. The closer he gets, or the better for him someone is, the worse the acting up you’re going to see, because he IS being self-destructive.”

“Oh… my… God…” Dani almost felt the room spin. “He does. He chases off everyone who can really help him.”

“Dani, see if you can get in touch with this guy and get him to meet you someplace. Set it up when I can come by and maybe I can help you explain. If this guy is really a caretaker type? A ‘daddy’ as you put it? I bet we can make him understand that your friend has major issues and how to protect himself while we work on getting your friend into therapy.”

“He... he won’t. Go to therapy.” Dani looked down. “His asshole daddy beat it into him that getting help was off the table.”

Carol’s mouth tightened in a thin line. “Great. Well, I’ll get you some books and articles on self-destructive behavior and abandonment. You can read some and we can see if this new boyfriend wants to put up with him enough to work on his issues… but that’s asking a lot of a new boyfriend, especially when this happened.”

Dani sniffled at her. “He really is a wonderful friend in so many ways.”

Carol looked sadly at him, “Of course, Dani. He’d probably throw himself on a live grenade for his friends from the sound of it. The problem is, he’s also going to do things to GET people to throw grenades at him, because of his issues.

“Maybe you can get his new friend to understand. Maybe you can get your friend to talk to me-but I don’t do therapy for free- since I’m not your typical therapist, but don’t blame yourself because you can’t fix his problems; if daddy-dearest started this, they go back a long time.”

Dani hoped he could get to see Tony again soon, maybe Monday. He was just praying that by then Tony would have made it up to his new friend so that Dani could meet him.

Poor boy, Tony was just an awful lot of crazy for anyone normal to handle.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that the impression DANI has of Tony's new boyfriend is ... er... biased.
> 
> bum hey, it might be enough to keep Carol from connecting "sweet, caretaker type, trying to help my idiot friend kick his self destructive bad habits" with "Loki who wants to carve Tony Stark, the crazed adrenaline junkie, up with a knife."  
> or not.  
> shrug


End file.
